by Jeff Ihnen | Aug 26, 2025 | Energy Rant
First, A Branding Whetter. Two weeks ago, I peppered the Big Three Automakers, Ford, General Motors, and the company formerly known as Chrysler, for forgetting their cash-cow customer base, which loves large gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles and big honkin’...
by Jeff Ihnen | Oct 22, 2024 | Energy Rant
A recent study, Stacked Energyscapes, led by professors at Loyola Marymount University and Penn State University, caught my eye. The paper describes webs of complexities associated with transitions from fossil-fuel-powered economies to clean-energy economies. I...
by Jeff Ihnen | Aug 27, 2024 | Energy Rant
Two years after natural gas prices spiked, resulting in a jump in coal consumption for electricity (see Figure 1), natural gas prices have plunged to inflation-adjusted record lows. The Wall Street Journal reports drillers and producers are curtailing activity as...
by Jeff Ihnen | Aug 19, 2024 | Energy Rant
Longtime Rant readers know I keep both feet on planet Earth, capturing all sides (typically two) and explaining, yes, but (fill in the blank). For the next case study, I was recently presented with a slide deck from the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), The Cleantech...
by Jeff Ihnen | Jul 29, 2024 | Energy Rant
For 50 years ending in 2000, electrical loads in the United States expanded at an average of 5.1% per year. For the next 20 years, the growth was essentially zero. Projections for the coming five years are roughly 1% per year (compounded annual growth rate, CAGR)....
